Hordes of perplexed viewers who own computers but who have little time or inclination to think about operating systems are being bombarded by ads that point out Warp's advantages over the current version of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows.

The better-than-Windows Warp features being touted include:

- True multitasking, or the ability to run several programs at once in separate windows.

- Full Internet connectivity, including a feature that lets you browse the World Wide Web by pointing and clicking with a mouse.

- Lengthy file names instead of Windows' infuriating system of 8-character file names followed by a dot and a three-character extension name.

- A hefty array of built-in applications, including heavy-duty word processing, spreadsheets, databases and calendars, all for under $90.

- Warp exists, while Microsoft's competing product, Windows 95, is plagued with delays and won't even ship until at least August.

OS/2 is wonderful. I love it. But it's got to go.

I'll tell you why shortly, but first a look at my credentials.

As you can see, I'm not a member of the costly army of consultants that Big Blue has summoned to its Armonk, N.Y., headquarters for advice about what sort of company should emerge after the gravediggers pat the last of its mainframes in the face with a shovel.

I offer Fortune 500 giants advice for free. I also pay for my automobiles with five-year loans and try to buy suits with two pairs of pants.

A lot of people I admire will tell you that my advice is worth exactly what I'm charging for it.

But for a souffle to soar, shells must suffer. In other words, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.

So I have to be the one to tell software geniuses such as Tim Sipples, the Midwest's ranking OS/2 guru, that Warp doesn't stand a Klingon's chance in the operating-system episode.

I figured this out the other day after an interview with Mike Maples, executive vice president for worldwide products at Microsoft.

Maples is a computer-industry legend. At 52, he's been dubbed youth-oriented Microsoft's "designated adult" and reigns as one of a triumvirate of executives who make up Chairman Bill Gates' inner circle.

So I asked Maples whether he saw any merit to charges that Microsoft has become so enormously successful as America's sole seller of the Windows operating environment and the largest seller of personal-computer software that it has become a virtual monopoly.

"That is nonsense," said Maples, whose salary and stock options since joining Microsoft in 1988 reportedly have exceeded $20 million.

But when it comes to desktop operating systems, Microsoft is Goliath to OS/2's David. And with the Philistines at the gate, Big Blue is fresh out of slingshots.

Look at the numbers.

As of mid-January, the killer TV ad campaign had netted IBM about 900,000 sales of OS/2 on top of the 6 million copies the company had managed to sell over the last several years.

By contrast, Microsoft Windows now is running in 60 million personal computers around the world.

Meanwhile, few observers are challenging Gates and Maples when they boast that Windows 95 will be running on 30 million machines a year after its release.

So to capture about a tenth of the market for desktop operating systems, IBM has spent $2 billion to develop OS/2-Warp over years when its stock price plummeted from $120 a share to below $50. The stock now is on the rise in the mid $70s.

But all that $2 billion bought has been software that delights a small knot of OS/2 lovers-myself included-and massive confusion on the part of millions of personal-computer owners who tune in Sunday football.

It has been the sheer size of IBM that has let the company continue beating the dead horse known as OS/2.

For any lesser-size outfit, normal market forces would have dealt Warp the same fate as befell the superior Betamax video recorders when the lesser VHS format captured the market with Windows-style dominance.